The supraorbital ridge (brow ridge) and glabella are larger in males.The supraorbital margin (the upper border of the eye socket) feels sharp and thin in females, blunt and thick in males. The mastoid process (a bony projection behind the ear) is longer and wider in relation to the external auditory meatus (ear canal) in males than females.The nuchal crest is more pronounced and rougher in males than females.We accordingly score cranial traits on a continuous scale from 1, being minimal (female) expression, to 5, maximal (male) expression. When non-specialists are asked to guess what bones are used in order to deduce the sex of an individual, the skull is not often the first answer given.Īnthropologists study a number of morphological features on the skull which present different degrees of expression depending on whether the individual is male or female.Īlthough humans exhibit sexual dimorphism, there is not a clear cut divide between male and female skeletons. Here, Rosalind Wallduck explains how anthropologists estimate the age and sex of a deceased individual from their skeleton. A central component of their work is to identify the age and sex of the people they are studying along with any diseases or other pathologies that they had. Museum scientists are analysising a collection of human remains from London to learn more about the lives and deaths of bygone Londoners. Drawings of the human skull from Gray’s Anatomy (1858)
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